happygoluckycruiser

We are cruising to Cuba from the Usa,but are uk citizens,with British passports. Is it true that we cannot go off the ship,and arrange our own sightseeing,but instead have to go on a ship's tour?

Not true. You can do as you please

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Welcome to Cruise Critic.

I have not heard of anyone not being allowed off the ship to do their own sight seeing.

Your cruise line will be the best to answer this. I personally would never book a cruise if there were a port(s) where I couldn't get off the boat.

Your cruise line will be the best to answer this. I personally would never book a cruise if there were a port(s) where I couldn't get off the boat.

Oops! No Pitcairn Island for you.[emoji26]

The rules for visiting Cuba are different for Americans than they are for any other country.

US Citizens must (generally) take one of the ship excursions due to the rules that a US Citizen may only enter Cuba for certain reasons. The ship excursions fill those rules.

I do not think those rules are the same for other countries.

OTOH, the cruise line may have requirements that I am not aware of.

Certainly on a Brit ship you can go off the ship and do your own thing - which I highly recommend rather than ship's tours.

As Brit passport holders, in theory you should be able to do likewise on a US ship. There are various ports around the world where different nationalities on the same ship have different concessions.

But best to check with the cruise line, they may be subject to blanket terms for all passengers.

If you get a positive answer by phone, get it confirmed by e-mail and take a copy.

If you get a negative answer it might be worth asking further up the seniority line - a lot of cruise line head office staff don't know their stuff and sadly sometimes, rather than bothering to check, it'll be - "the answer's no, now what's the question" :rolleyes:

JB :)

Another factor - even if you are allowed to go DIY in port, you probably already paid for shore excursions! All the Cuba cruises from US-approved lines I've looked into have a requirement that folks going on them meet minimum time spent being educated, doing volunteer work or the like - so they include various shore trips in the price that meet those requirements. So unless they sound totally worthless, you may want to go along so you get your money's worth;-)

you can DIY if you want

check the Cuba forum in the ports of call section